Ovvio Osteria

This is one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants in the area. The food is consistently delicious. We always get the cheese and charcuterie plate when we go and they always have a nice and tasty selection. The wine selection is solid and cocktails are good, fun and unique. They also have wine tastings from time to time, which is not only lots of fun, but the price is right. They have a nice large bar area with a tv that is great if you just want to hang out with friends and not have a sit down dinner, but the dining room is pleasant, comfortable and the atmosphere is a little modern rustic. The service varies from excellent to ok, depending on who your server is. There is one server who is amazing — it makes a huge difference when we end up at his table. Either way, I’d highly recommend this restaurant for the overall great dining experience.

This is probably one of my favorite restaurants here is has great service, great food and great people. As a person visiting from New Mexico I wanted something good and fast to eat so at the front desk we asked if there were any good and fast places to and he said «Ovvio». So we went down to the street to Ovvio and when we got there we were seated quickly. We ordered an appetizer and it came out in 5 mins. It was the best garlic shrimp we had ever tasted.
Now dinner was another wonderful thing. Me and my sister had shared a calzone. Yum yum yum!!! The make your calzone is the best. For dessert my sister had the lemon basil ice cream. I know it doesn’t sound good but it was delicious. And I had the cheese cakes. Slices of heaven!!! This is the stop for delicious food of any kind.
We even came back the next night!
Our waiter was the ast. manager chris wonderful wonderful job

Great meal– the pizza crust is excellent! Try the Hawaiian pizza– home made mozzarella! Egg plant was the best I have ever had– also had the home made mozzarella. We sat outside — very pleasant.

This is one of those times I really hate that I cannot give ½ stars on Unilocal.With that point made… I would say this place is a solid 3.5 stars. Given a few major factors that stood out to me, I opted to give them 3 stars instead of 4.
So, like other reviews have said, the service here is sloooow. We came on a Saturday afternoon (@12pm) and there were maybe 3 other tables. From what I saw, there was one girl to refill water, one server, and one manager/​food runner. So, of course with only one server it may be a bit busy but… who knows. Our server was very very nice, so that is no issue.
Ambiance and environment of the actual restaurant is nice. It is open and airy, and there is outdoor seating. We had a table by the window and the trims were extremely dusty which is a slight turn-​off. I don’t think they are doing that well either, as there were paper signs all over the inside and the outside of the restaurant of various specials.
Food is good. I would say it is 4 stars. Portion size is okay, as the calamari came in a tiny bowl. It was literally about half to one-​third of calamari portions I have had elsewhere. It was pretty good, however, it lacked salt. The bread basket was okay (bread wasn’t overwhelmingly soft or crusty or doughy or anything), the mussels were pretty good. The sausage pizza had a nice, thin crust but also needed a ton of salt.
I think if they worked on the service a bit and added some salt, I would come again.

I’m nearly certain my $ 18 salmon pasta dish was made with canned salmon. There was no shortage of pin bones. The menu doesn’t make sense and is overpriced. Resign yourself to sitting at the crowded bar if you want either the drink or food specials. Great if you enjoy awkwardly warm red wine.

I love Italian food, and like having a sort-​of-​upscale Italian place in my apartment complex for lazy date nights. I’ve been here probably five times and the food has always been pretty good. On my last visit, one of our bread baskets was filled with stale, rock-​hard bread — we were joking that they had accidentally given us croutons. Bread is free so I’m not deducting stars for that.
Ovvio loses stars due to seriously spotty service. Turnover here seems to be extremely high, and it feels like every time we visit we have a new server who has no idea what they’re doing. On the same visit as the croûton bread, I told our server that I was interested in the entrée special. She told me she was new and as I tried to get a little more information about the special it became clear that she didn’t know anything at all about the menu. I understand that a new server may not have memorized the full menu, but you need to do some training before sending people out on the floor. Later in the meal, four of us ordered dessert. 20 minutes after we ordered, she came out and told myself and a family member that our dessert was not available — seriously? At that point everyone else’s desserts were already on their way out, so I didn’t bother ordering a different one. They ended up comping all of the other desserts, which was a nice gesture.
Overall, sloppy service really hurts this place. If they can figure out how to keep staff or at least hire new servers who are a bit more on top of things, I think it would be a nicer experience.

So I don’t have anything absolutely bad about this restaurant, but there was nothing that blew me away or was amazing.
So we come in late ish, around 8 and it was still fairly busy. We were seated quickly though so that was good.
When we were seated, I alerted the waiter that I had the Unilocal 10% discount. I was a little perplexed as to why the servers didn’t know about the discount. I think the manager or owner should make all the staff aware of it because I felt silly for a few minutes because they didn’t know what I was talking about. I am very glad though that they were able to accept it !
So to dinner. I ordered the mussels and my friend orders the clam papperdelle pasta.
Mussels were good! I thought it was cool that they were served with diced potatoes and pancetta. It was new and I hadn’t seen it before! I liked the dish and I liked the mussels ! The broth was very salty though. I felt like it was mostly salt. And there was no tomato confit. It was just 4 little tomatoes. I was also very surprised that they didn’t serve the mussels with a toasted piece of bread… this is the first time I’ve seen the dish served without toast. (Lowered rating due to this)
The clam papperdelle pasta was way overpriced. The portions weren’t that big and it was just okay. The sauce wasn’t that thick either and they didn’t give out that many clams. This is why I knocked off two stars. It was 17 $ and I think the dish was maybe worth 14 $.
One Big plus was the complimentary bread!!! The bread was perfectly warmed and I loved the balsamic vinaigrette dressing with the olive oil!!! It’s too bad the actual entrees weren’t as good. I think the portions for the pasta dishes aren’t good. They should add more pasta and more sauce.
Service was also pretty good! The servers are just like any other restaurant. Nothing special but they got their job done. The food runners and bussers were really good. I always had enough water and they cleared the plates away quickly as well.
I may come back for their complimentary bread, but I don’t know if I’ll get a pasta dish. Maybe I’ll try their pizza because it looked really good !

I am a big fan of Italian food. I have tried Italian restaurants from the dock area of Boston to Mulberry Street in Manhattan to the small family Italian restaurants in New England and numerous American cities as well as in Rome, Naples and Sicily and on cruise ships specializing in unique cuisine.
So, I am prejudiced. I rate Italian food higher than others because it tastes great and my idea of an ideal meal.
One dish I had not experienced was Pappardelle Bolognese. That was a lunch special at Ovvio Osteria in Fairfax, VA when eating there yesterday so I gave it a try. It also came with a small salad.
The salad was generally fresh with a couple of lettuce leaves having some brown on them. The brown stuff is not good. But, to be fair, there was not a lot of it and the Italian dressing tasted good and there was not too much of it. I ate the entire salad but pushed the brown lettuce aside.
I do like Bolognese. It is usually very spicy, probably why I like it so much. It is a combination of ground beef, ground pork and pancetta – and plenty of garlic. I had not had the Papperdelle noodles which is a wide pasta noodle. In this case, the lunch was very good. The Bolognese was spicy, as it should be, served very hot (as it should be), and I was delighted with the choice.
The waitress was friendly, not exceptionally knowledgeable about Italian food but knew the menu well and very competently and accurately explained the definition of the Pappardelle noodles. My meal was a good experience.
The margherita pizza was a good size, had too much oil on the surface but, after soaking that up with a napkin it tasted very good. There was none left on the plate. We had expected a smaller dish but that is not a complaint. The portions are generous.
The luncheon portions are smaller and less expensive than the dinner portions. From my perspective, these are good conditions as Italian food is very filling and less expensive is always good.
There was a good wine list and we opted for a bottle if Italian Sangiovese which was fairly priced in mid-​$ 40’s and went well with our meal.
The atmosphere at Ovvio Osterio is informal but lacks the ambiance of many small, family owned Italian restaurants. It is an open area with a lot of glass area and the furniture is well used but lacks the classy nature of many of these restaurant that have been in business for a long time. A great Italian restaurant is usually somewhat dark, Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin music in the background, photos of the owner or his family in Italy or meeting Frank in Newark or New York and a menu speciality of a large steak with a side of spaghetti and an Italian salad with Italian dressing.
But, despite the lack of genuine family style Italian restaurant atmosphere, the food was good, the prices were very reasonable and the service was friendly.
Check it out for lunch and give the Pappardelle Bolognese a try while you are there. You won’t regret it.

We had dinner here last night and overall, it was alright. The atmosphere was decent and service was good. My main complaint would be the portion sizes — which would be more appropriate for a lunchtime menu that was priced accordingly. The Caesar salad was unsatisfying and TINY — $ 7 for literally, 5 pieces of room temperature Romaine lettuce with a drizzle of dressing and some parmesan crisps. The pasta dishes were great, but again super small portions, leaving much to be desired.
I have a pretty standard appetite and I can appreciate doing without the mega portions served up at many other Italian restaurant, but the portions here were miniscule. Definitely would not recommend coming here if you’re starving! I’d consider coming back for lunch, but would probably venture elsewhere for dinner, next time.

Had girls night dinner and arrived with no reservations on a Friday night, but that wasn’t a problem! We got seated promptly and was served garlic bread with olive oil to temporarily subside our hunger. To start off, we got garlic shrimp and bruschetta as appetizers and they were both delicious. We each got 2 shrimps so it was a perfect portion size for the three of us.
For my entrée, I ordered pappardelle bolognese with an addition of meatballs to it (I recommend if you like meat in your pasta) It was the right amount of pasta with meat! I liked that the pasta was thick and each bite had some meat to accompany it. Even with all those carbs that I had prior, I was able to finish the whole entire dish… ready for bed at 9 PM haha. Dessert, I got the tiramisu and my friends split the banana and nutella crepes. Both were delicious and was a perfect blend chocolate for all of us.
Reason for the –1 star, our waiter was not the most attentive to our table. He was all over the place and was rather hard to grab his attention. My friend had to ask another waiter for a refill on her wine glass, but I just thought he should’ve been more attentive to us. Given the fact that we’re one of the three tables that he was catering to, it shouldn’t be that hard to flag him down.

I recently hosted a large dinner here and had a great experience. Frankly, I was a bit hesitant in booking my event here due to their mixed reviews. However, after speaking with Richard, I felt a lot more comfortable and decided to give this place a shot. Leading up to the event, I kept in contact with Richard who helped coordinate space accommodations, special requests, menus, etc. He worked with me to ensure that I was happy with our deal.
The moment we walked in, we had our appetizers set on the tables. Service was prompt and the food was great. The music, vibe and décor was another great touch to our dinner. Next time I’m in town, I’ll have to check out their all day Thursdays HH!

Wildly disappointed with my super awkward experience here. I will get right to it and say I will not be returning here again.
Made reservations early on Sunday for 7PM to meet up with a good friend of mine. Well, turns out we really didn’t need a rez; everything was winding down and we were some of the last customers in the place when we left around 8:50.
My friend ordered the Fusilli alla Vodka (at $ 18 a pop), and I opted for the Shrimp Fra Diavolo, since it appeared to be the spiciest pasta option — and I ordered it sans shrimp. (It ended up being $ 13 instead of $ 18, thankfully. I was a little concerned I would get charged for the shrimp). To drink, I ordered The Last Word, and it was flavorful and quite strong.
Our service was meh — our waiter, Ali, was nice enough but the food was slow to come out and my noodles were awkwardly all stuck together in clumps!!! They were also quite chewy and gummy, not at all how spaghetti should taste. Plus, the portion was tiny; I was hungry within an hour of leaving.
The music choice here was odd as well: everything from country to James Taylor to pop music played during our visit, not exactly what one expects at an Italian restaurant.
The final straw? Our poor server broke approximately 5 water glasses RIGHT next to our table as we were about to leave. That sealed the deal; this was a one-​time venture. Ovvio Os-​strange-​ia is more like it.

I really wanted to like Ovvio Osteria. My coworker raves about this place so I bought the brunch Groupon. We went on a Saturday at around noon. There was nobody there so we got to sit outside on a nice sunny day.
The service is a 4; they weren’t overly attentive or under attentive. The host wasn’t super warm, and neither was our waiter. But he was a good waiter nevertheless.
The food is a 3. Again, I really wanted to like this place. The waiter gave us bread with a balsamic/​oil mixture. This was super delicious. We then ordered the Nutella buns. These were disappointing :(. They were just harder pieces of bread with some Nutella mixed in.
I ordered the eggplant parmesan because the menu is filled with meaty items (I don’t eat too much pork or red meat.) DO NOT ORDER THE EGGPLANT PARMESAN! It is a few pieces of sliced eggplant with tomato sauce and just cheese all over the plate. That’s it! Just cheese and eggplant and sauce. I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe a layered and breaded eggplant with cheese and sauce between it? This was a dish of cooked cheese. Not to mention it was so salty! If you want a plate of cheese with some eggplant in the middle, this is your go-​to. Otherwise, don’t order it!
My sister ordered a panini. It had fried chicken, prosciutto and omelet in it. First of all, the panini bread was almost like pita. It was more of a pita pocket. There wasn’t too much flavoring in the sandwich either. I tried some and nothing popped out at me.
The portions are very good, though. If you go to Ovvio, don’t order what we ordered! I’m giving it a 3 because the food could be better. I’m glad I used a Groupon.

Great specials everyday of the week. Live jazz and ALL day till 9pm happy hour pricing on Thursday. Awesome pricing on the menu for happy hour (7 days a week) read that again 7 DAYS A WEEK includes garlic shrimp, meatballs, blue bay Mussels to name a few. They have «date night» on Wednesday… although I’ve never found or been given A date! LOL
Brunch …1 dollar mimosa or 3 dollar Bloody Mary. Breakfast foods to fresh salmon spinach salad.
Now let’s talk about the bartenders Jimmy, Chris, and Danny. Not only are they cute, personable and have my back they are real «old school» mixologists… Manhattan, Martini etc.
Love this place

Great lunch menu, especially the $ 12 quickie at lunch menu. The grilled caesar with white anchovies is fantastic and so is the Pappardelle Bolognese and Pumpkin Risotto.

We have been here twice for dining in and carried out the third time. Never again.
Our first visit was early fall of 2015 and service was great, food delicious. On our second visit in November, service was not as great, food was inconsistent. They substituted items in my dish without asking. They steamed the broccoli rabe and then dumped a ton of salt on it so that it was completely inedible. You could see the salt pile!
This last carry out visit was the worst and we will not be coming back. My husband tried to order spicy sausage fusilli and they told him they don’t make it anymore. After about 3 other selections off the menu and being told they don’t serve those pasta dishes either, he finally selected one that was available. Should have know something was up. When he came back with the order, it was pathetic. The grilled Caesar salad was supposed to be a full order, and we were charged full price, but see the picture and tell me how that is worth $ 12. Again, they substituted items in my gnocchi without telling me. It was supposed to have scallops and spinach. Instead, I got roasted garlic and asparagus, and NONE of the scallops.
2 incomplete pasta dishes and a wilted salad for $ 53! UNACCEPTABLE.

I’m at a cross between 3 and 4 stars… because it really was Unilocal’s definition of 3 stars… A-​OK. But I’m really not sure if I can call myself a fan yet!
One thing they have going for them is that they have an awesome menu full of italian american comfort foods. It’s the kind of place — at least for me — where I’m like ahh, I want to try the whole menu
I wasn’t too crazy about their caesar salad, which is grilled, and also written in the title but apparently I can’t read (I’m not into the grilled lettuce thing) but their dressing was pretty good.
I also had their Italian panini, which was HUGE. But basically what you would expect from a panini.
Since I live in the area, I would consider returning just because other parts of their menu look good, but it’s not a place I would really go out of my way for, which is my reason for 3 stars for now!

After a less than stellar first go round at Ovvio Osteria a year or so ago, I decided to give their brunch a try in hopes for redemption. My first visit was plagued by pork belly that may as well have been chewing gum. NOW however, The executive chef and sous chef are new. I was speaking with the manager and found out that they both used to run the kitchen at the Smithsonian museum of the American Indians food court. And it shows, with a somewhat different menu and a stellar brunch. $ 3 bloody Mary’s that are absolutely fantastic.
The food was highly improved upon the service is great although I didn’t find it lacking previously. But holy cow this is going to be a go-​to brunch spot. Props to Ovvio on hiring new kitchen staff who know what the hell they’re doing.

Wow! Awesome food and awesome service! I came here last night for dinner with friends. The restaurant is conveniently located in Merrifield… like a block from the metro. I was pleasantly surprised about my entire experience! The staff were all very friendly, our water glasses were never empty and our server was very attentive… this place was simply delightful.
I ordered the spinach ricotta agnolotti. It was flavorful and delicious! It’s basically ravioli with ricotta inside. Yum! I highly recommend it. The bread that came to the table went perfect with it. My friends ordered the pork chop and the lasagna. It all looked really good but I didn’t try any. We also got the Bomboloni doughnuts for dessert and some house made gelatto. The doughnuts were light and fluffy and had a light powdered sugar and chocolate sauce on the side. The gelatto was super yum! Shout out to our waiter (i don’t know his name) who was so amazing! He was a kind, funny older man with very cool eye-​glasses. He gave us recommendations and was diligent in his service to our table. I couldn’t have asked for better service!
I had a wonderful experience here and will definitely return. I saw that they have happy hour and brunch so I will come back for both of those. Thank you for a great experience!

My family and I dined here for Father’s Day. The restaurant was fairly empty and quiet. The ambiance was rustic, with natural lighting from the large windows. I liked the flatware, but was turned off by how it was resting on an extremely sticky wood dining table. Unfortunately the setting was the highlight of the meal.
Service was terrible — very unpolished and inattentive, but at least they were pleasant when we could actually get their attention. Our waiter did not check in between the courses, in fact it was comically difficult to find him. The busboy looked completely out of his element, fumbled silverware, and hopelessly responded «I’m not the waiter» when we asked to place dessert orders. He could have simply gotten the waiter for us, but that didn’t happened.
Timing was also another ordeal. It took 30 minutes to get our apps. This was a long time considering we got salads and shrimp. Entrees also took a while and when they finally arrived the proteins were all overdone. The rare steak came out medium-​well. They were nice about cooking another steak and that was indeed rare, though it needed more seasoning.
The pork chop was extremely dry but would have taken too long to redo. The salmon was the closest to being acceptable, but it was also a couple minutes overdone. The best dish was probably the sausage pizza, but it only tasted good by comparison.
They make all the desserts in-​house, but unfortunately the gelato and sorbetto were disappointingly icy and bland. The warm blueberry cheesecake was good (relatively).
Somehow with a half empty restaurant, our meal still took 2.5 hours. Considering what we ordered and the type of meal this was, this should have taken an hour.
With all the missteps, it seems like the restaurant is relying too much on business from the surrounding walkable apartment complexes. Ovvio is in my parents’ neighborhood, but we wouldn’t drive the 5 minutes to dine there again.